Author
Topic: DarkStar Alliance Map Testbed. (Read 1711 times)

Need some map feedback on the currently playing maps on the DarkStar Alliance MWLL Server|Map Testbed.

There should be TC_AshanaV075, TC_EmpreiV01, and TC_ConcourseV048

Logged

Raise your quality standards as high as you can live with, avoid wasting your time on routine problems, and always try to work as closely as possible at the boundary of your abilities. Do this, because it is the only way of discovering how that boundary should be moved forward.

-Edsger Dijkstr

Wesco wrote:Main point: "OH LOOK AT ME I'm A BIG STUPID MECH WITH A SILLY GUN AND I'M ALL AGILE AND GRACEFUL OH LOOK OVER THERE IT's A TR MAX...............................OH MY GOD I CAN LICK MY OWN KNEECAPS AND I DON'T KNOW WHERE MY SPINE IS."

Reminds me of TC_Seaport and that dusty cityblock map. Map design favors brawlers in the eastern half and wil probably see lots of Assault and Demos late-game; the western half is more open with it's forest and more like a side conflict for the usual Hovercrafts, light and medium Mechs. The Air bases in the western corners are pretty far out, if a seperate cap zone on the height of the middle on in the east is added, players would have more reason to actually move and stay in the western half of the map. The "streets" might be a little too narrow at least for my tastes, not a lot of room to maneuvre.

As for the visual style, it's of course up to personal preferences. to me, the building-like blocky "hills" looks like placeholder for real buildings to me and would look much nicer with actual building models; Of course, placing hundreds of buildings is resource-intensive and tedious. There are maps where a suspension of disbelief is of no concern and they can get away with a more practical style that's second to the gameplay; Prime example would be Acid_KotH. Concourse however aims for a more realistic city style with roads in between, so the placeholder buildings look odd to me.

In front of the IS Hangar is a road sign that's floating a few meters above the ground.

All trees are non-solid, and they exhibit some weird graphic bug up close, looks like their canopies are showing through the trunk.

TC_EmpreiV01:

First of all, I like the landscape with it's mixture of rolling hills and rocky cliffs, should make for balanced gameplay where sniping and brawling are equally viable. The grayish-green grass mixes fairly well with the red-brown cliffs.The white rocks strewn about look like tombstones, which is cool; however, they all face in the same direction and they are placed rather unrealistically. Rocks tend to gather at the botton om cliffs and not so much on the open fields. On this map, they are equally distributed between hilltops, cliffs and valleys. Furthermore, especially the ones on the hills and next to sheer cliffs look strange because some models are standing upright like a domino whereas they should have tumbled down the hill centuries ago. My suggestion would be to place far less rocks overall and place some groups of rubble next to some cliffs, while putting a few here and there on open spaces to break up the monotony. Because the rocks block movement and weapons fire, it's even more important to clear a lot of them so ground assets don't become stuck in their tracks every few seconds while brawling Maybe you could also resize some of them so they can act as full cover for mechs.

Oh and btw, I like those Stone Henge-like structures. I think they would serve well as additional markers for the capture zones whic hare so far only indicated by the small bunkers and beacons. If the Stone Henges are actually places in or next to the cap zones, the whole map would be about controlling sites of religous significance or something, which I think is a nice backstory.The bases seem to be a little lonely where they sit right now, just a small crevice in the mountains with nothing else but the hangar. Some support strucutres like barracks, fances or something would make the whole thing more believable

On a whole, I like this map!

TC_AshanaV075:

Holy crap, this map is so GREEN! I think I'm flying through the green pastures of Hobbiton! No really, I'm generally not a fan of that clean and green look, to me, a battlefield should be torn, wrecked, blasted and scarred All those trees might kill some user's machines, and I wonder how viable aeros will be with all that cover available. Brawling will also be made difficult with all those obstacles. The large stretches of concrete approaching the harbour from the main bases are pretty much death zones because the have no cover at all; I can picture LRM boats and snipers camping on the cliffs above, waiting for easy prey. The texture fading between grass and concrete is jaggy, I guess due to the brush size used to paint. Overall, the map looks nice and fairly realistic, but I can't say how welll it will play with that much cover. On the other hand, Scout mechs and ambushers that pop out of the woods and vanish again might have a heyday here.

Last but not least, thanks for taking the time and creating these maps, it's promising work and I'm looking forward to playing on them "for real"! =)

Reminds me of TC_Seaport and that dusty cityblock map. Map design favors brawlers in the eastern half and wil probably see lots of Assault and Demos late-game; the western half is more open with it's forest and more like a side conflict for the usual Hovercrafts, light and medium Mechs. The Air bases in the western corners are pretty far out, if a seperate cap zone on the height of the middle on in the east is added, players would have more reason to actually move and stay in the western half of the map. The "streets" might be a little too narrow at least for my tastes, not a lot of room to maneuvre.

As for the visual style, it's of course up to personal preferences. to me, the building-like blocky "hills" looks like placeholder for real buildings to me and would look much nicer with actual building models; Of course, placing hundreds of buildings is resource-intensive and tedious. There are maps where a suspension of disbelief is of no concern and they can get away with a more practical style that's second to the gameplay; Prime example would be Acid_KotH. Concourse however aims for a more realistic city style with roads in between, so the placeholder buildings look odd to me.

In front of the IS Hangar is a road sign that's floating a few meters above the ground.

All trees are non-solid, and they exhibit some weird graphic bug up close, looks like their canopies are showing through the trunk.

The trees I have found lately, are vegetation that will have to be swapped out to another tree that you can't clip through.The IS Hanger sign will have to be fixed, as well as the Pop Machine in the IS base, as well as the other thing in the Clan base.The biggest problem I've run into in terms of placing realistic buildings, is that there are simply not enough good looking buildings for City Warfare in both Crysis Wars geometric entities or for MWLL. Also, putting too many solids will result in most of them turning into the little yellow balls that hang in the air.

For an Eastern cap point, I think I may just make the Diamond shaped area the cap point, with a re-arm area near the end of the road on that side. And then just remove the repair bays from the inside of the Cathedral and move them into the Gas Station section.

First of all, I like the landscape with it's mixture of rolling hills and rocky cliffs, should make for balanced gameplay where sniping and brawling are equally viable. The grayish-green grass mixes fairly well with the red-brown cliffs.The white rocks strewn about look like tombstones, which is cool; however, they all face in the same direction and they are placed rather unrealistically. Rocks tend to gather at the botton om cliffs and not so much on the open fields. On this map, they are equally distributed between hilltops, cliffs and valleys. Furthermore, especially the ones on the hills and next to sheer cliffs look strange because some models are standing upright like a domino whereas they should have tumbled down the hill centuries ago. My suggestion would be to place far less rocks overall and place some groups of rubble next to some cliffs, while putting a few here and there on open spaces to break up the monotony. Because the rocks block movement and weapons fire, it's even more important to clear a lot of them so ground assets don't become stuck in their tracks every few seconds while brawling Maybe you could also resize some of them so they can act as full cover for mechs.

Oh and btw, I like those Stone Henge-like structures. I think they would serve well as additional markers for the capture zones whic hare so far only indicated by the small bunkers and beacons. If the Stone Henges are actually places in or next to the cap zones, the whole map would be about controlling sites of religous significance or something, which I think is a nice backstory.The bases seem to be a little lonely where they sit right now, just a small crevice in the mountains with nothing else but the hangar. Some support structures like barracks, fences or something would make the whole thing more believable

On a whole, I like this map!

I think with the Stonehenge, I may have to copy it around by each cap point, either that or figure out something else to put there. Personally, as a map maker having something that has overhead cover is mostly Overpowered in terms of Aero's not being able to FB your face in. But barracks and fences would be good by the main bases.

Holy crap, this map is so GREEN! I think I'm flying through the green pastures of Hobbiton! No really, I'm generally not a fan of that clean and green look, to me, a battlefield should be torn, wrecked, blasted and scarred All those trees might kill some user's machines, and I wonder how viable aeros will be with all that cover available. Brawling will also be made difficult with all those obstacles. The large stretches of concrete approaching the harbour from the main bases are pretty much death zones because the have no cover at all; I can picture LRM boats and snipers camping on the cliffs above, waiting for easy prey. The texture fading between grass and concrete is jaggy, I guess due to the brush size used to paint. Overall, the map looks nice and fairly realistic, but I can't say how welll it will play with that much cover. On the other hand, Scout mechs and ambushers that pop out of the woods and vanish again might have a heyday here.

Last but not least, thanks for taking the time and creating these maps, it's promising work and I'm looking forward to playing on them "for real"! =)

This map will be updated eventually to be more like an industrial area, with the open areas having Smokestacks, Storage Buildings, and perhaps some other kinds of places to have a jolly good time brawling through. The one area that has the Cargo Ships will likely be made into a dock/ Shipping port thingie. I may also have to figure out the fire particles stuff too.

Logged

Raise your quality standards as high as you can live with, avoid wasting your time on routine problems, and always try to work as closely as possible at the boundary of your abilities. Do this, because it is the only way of discovering how that boundary should be moved forward.

-Edsger Dijkstr

Wesco wrote:Main point: "OH LOOK AT ME I'm A BIG STUPID MECH WITH A SILLY GUN AND I'M ALL AGILE AND GRACEFUL OH LOOK OVER THERE IT's A TR MAX...............................OH MY GOD I CAN LICK MY OWN KNEECAPS AND I DON'T KNOW WHERE MY SPINE IS."

Currently getting Bruno_007's Rconnect working on this server. I managed to wade through what little topics there were and figured it out on my own.

Logged

Raise your quality standards as high as you can live with, avoid wasting your time on routine problems, and always try to work as closely as possible at the boundary of your abilities. Do this, because it is the only way of discovering how that boundary should be moved forward.

-Edsger Dijkstr

Wesco wrote:Main point: "OH LOOK AT ME I'm A BIG STUPID MECH WITH A SILLY GUN AND I'M ALL AGILE AND GRACEFUL OH LOOK OVER THERE IT's A TR MAX...............................OH MY GOD I CAN LICK MY OWN KNEECAPS AND I DON'T KNOW WHERE MY SPINE IS."